Thirty-five years after she dropped out of high school, Pam Nagle went back to school to earn both a high school equivalency diploma and her nurse’s aide certification and for her effort she was recognized by the New York Association for Continuing Community Education as a student of the year.

Nagle, who wasreally just fulfilling her own ambition to earn a General Education Development (GED) degree, found it all a little starting.

“It’s such not a big deal for me, but everybody seems to be going overboard and I’m a bit overwhelmed,” she said.

Steve Cannerelli / The Post-StandardPam Nagle, of Auburn, in the GED room at the BOCES Center for Learning in Auburn. Nagle was named one of New York’s GED Students of the Year. She was honored in a ceremony in Albany.

Nagle, a Central New York native, discovered she was pregnant at age 15 and, although the school did provide tutors, she decided not to go back to school after the baby was born. Instead, she married her boyfriend, he joined the Marines and eventually they ended up in California.

Over the next 35 years, Nagle got on with life. She eventually moved back to Central New York and ended up in Auburn. She raised four children, held jobs, became a grandparent, cared for a dying daughter-in-law and during it all, dreamed of getting her GED as the first step in a better career.

But there were other people to get through school first.

“I had two boys and two girls. It was very difficult telling them how important finishing school was when I didn’t do it myself. But they all did and a couple went on to college and that was wonderful thing for me to know they did what they were supposed to do,” she said. “I’m very proud of them all.”

It was her daughter-in-law’s encouragement that convinced her to finally go back to school herself.

“My daughter-in-law kept telling me, ‘You need to do this. You need to do this.’ So I had the drive from her behind me,” Nagle said.

When she heard from a friend that she could take both the GED class and a certified nurse’s aide class at the same time, she decided to go for it.

It wasn’t easy.

“I was working and watching my granddaughter and for someone who hadn’t been in school for 35 years, it was a lot of work,” she said.

Steve Cannerelli / The Post-StandardPam Nagle (right), of Auburn, with her teacher Jennifer Kent-Isaacs, in the GED room at the BOCES Center for Learning in Auburn. Nagle was named one of the state’s GED Student of the Year.

Jennifer Kent-Isaacs, the adult GED educator at BOCES said it was Nagle’s determination and dedication that won her the award.

This year was the 28th annual award, Kent-Isaacs said. “This year, 41 students were nominated and 20 were picked,” she said.

NYACCE is a statewide association providing information and support for educators of adults. The award ceremony is part of an annual trip to Albany where they show lawmakers the real value of funding adult education programs.

Nagle saidthe award and the trip to Albany were not part of her plans. At first, she admits, it was a little intimidating. “It was like why is everybody making a big deal out of this.”

But it didn’t take long for her to start enjoying it.

“It was like a fairy tale from the minute I got in the vehicle — they drove me there. The hotel we stayed in was phenomenal,” she said. “I was being treated like a princess.”

She met state Sen. Michael Nozzolio and was on the floor of the Senate.

“It was wonderful,and everybody was wonderful and the awards ceremony was just phenomenal,” Nagle said.

What she enjoyed most was meeting the 19 other award winners.

“The best part of the whole time was listening to their stories,” she said. “They brought tears to my eyes. There were people that came from other countries and people from families with 11 children. There was one gentleman that had to quit school to help out his mother because his father died. There were the most unbelievable stories these people had. Meeting and spending time with them was the best time.”

Nagle isn’t finished with her education yet. An injury at her job as a nurse’s aide has temporarily sidelined her and may even keep her from going for her LPN degree. But she is not a quitter.

“I may not be able to stay in nursing, but if I can go back to school I will do something in the medical field,” Nagle said. “I don’t have any specific thing right now. I thought I did. I thought I had all my ducks in a row, but I’m not the one in control and I have to wait and see what happens.”